The Price of the Stars
by IIII Winter Wolf IIII
Summary: Annabeth is her brilliant self and also a talented musican. Piper, her closest friend convinces her to join her already successful band on her first world tour. When Piper is forced to higher a bodyguard for her best friend. In the same time a young Seal is leaving active duty to find out what civilian life has to offer and gets hired by a private security firm. Summary sucks. :(
1. First job

**Chapter 1: First job**

**Okay. This chapter is me fooling around. I miss the Percabeth and am not sure how to continue my running stories so I wrote this. Enjoy.**

**Annabeth Chase: Is 23 years old and a scientist at the MIT. She she is extremely intelligent and her private hobbies are playing the flute and piano and she is also an enthusiast when it comes to Hellenic architecture. She has golden blond hair and ice gray silver eyes. She is slim built and Athletic and her features are elegant and beautiful. She is fierce, strong, independent and extremely smart but has dyslexia and ADHD. She is a declared Atheist. Her close friend is Piper Mclean. She and Piper grew up as close as sisters.**

**Piper Mclean: Mclean is a 23 year old, Native American music star. She lives together with her close friend Annabeth Chase. She is already one of the world's most popular music stars in the world and her popularity quickly grew thanks to her father Tristan McLean who happens to be a popular movie star. She lives with her friend Annabeth Chase in Hollywood and her bodyguard Jason Grace. She officially follows her tribe's mythology but she only knows how much of it she believes.**

**Percy Jackson: Is 26 years old. He and his best Sophie Mcking joined the US marines as soon as they left high-school when they were 18. After one and a half years and their first combat deployment they applied to the Seals and with some complications Sophie also managed to try out. Both aced in Seal tryouts and before their twenty first birthdays both graduated as members of the Seal command. Percy Jackson is seen as one of the best the Seals have ever brought forward. Adores his half sister Chloe. Is a Christian but not to into it.**

**Chloe Bofis: Is the daughter of Sally and Paul Bofis. She has Sandy Blond hair and blue eyes. However she resembles her mother in every other way. Has dyslexia and ADHD and like her brother sees school as a time to catch up on sleep. She is a Piper Mclean fan.**

**Sally Bofis: Former Sally Jackson. 47 years old. Is married to Paul Bofis, Percy's former English teacher. Mother to Chloe and Percy. Is kind, friendly.**

**Sophie Mcking: Is 26 year old. Same career as Percy but he is her team leader. Quite pretty. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Team sniper.**

Annabeth pov.

"Come on Annabeth. It won't be that bad. I have one too." I glared at Piper. "This is your fault. You made me go on that tour with you. And now I'm stuck with a bodyguard?" I growled back at my friend. Piper gave me a tired look. "Don't be so stubborn Annabeth. You enjoyed making music with me and you got a chance to make money with your hobby." I glared at her. My good friend knew quite well that even though I have been playing the flute passionately for many years and also did not do too bad on the piano and with classic ballet I also needed some time to address the minor issue of my future career - becoming a theoretical physicist.

Piper was a singer who with her father's help had become one of the most famous performing artists in the world within two years. Her father was a rather popular movie star bye the way. Piper and I pretty much grew up together and after one year of flattering and a nonstop bombardment with requests I had agreed to accompany her and her band on their first world tour. Now I was not only seen as part of the band but also shared Piper's popularity. Her fans expected me to turn up together with her for all her future tours and concerts. In other words they were also my fans which surprised me. I had not expected that the girl with the flute would be so popular when combined with pop music. The actual problem was that I seemed to have my first stalker and my fan mail wasn't only filled with kind words either.

Piper was already used to the stalker problem and her father had hired a bodyguard named Jason to shadow her in her every day life. He was quite nice and good looking which Piper was very aware of and I had the suspicion that they liked each other. "The guy is only watching me and making pictures. Apparently there is no difference between him and the paparazzi." Fully aware of how naive I sounded I snapped at her: "And what about the letters from lots of people filled with strange and spooky things." I rolled my eyes not wanting to admit defeat. "I need to study." I finally stated and pulled out a book about particle physics. Piper smiled patiently "Knowing that you would come to your senses my father has already arranged a meeting this evening with our private security firm."

I was furious. How could she do this to me? Suspecting that I had already lost I half-heartedly pointed out: "I can't come. I have dinner with my family." Piper smiled sweetly. "Your father has already been informed and agrees that this has priority." I groaned and dropped backwards down on the couch. "It's happening Annabeth. You were already swarmed by fans and paparazzi more then once and even nearly had your cloths torn off by the masses last week. If the police hadn't saved your stubborn behind you would have ended up in huge trouble." I glared at her. Sadly she seemed utterly unimpressed. "Do I have to?" I whined. Piper nodded. "Yes you do. We are leaving in one hour." She declared. I groaned. "I hate you Piper." She smirked. "I love you too Annabeth."

And so one hour later Piper and I were on our way into Los Angeles to the security firm's office.

.-.-.-. line breaker.-.-.-.-.

We headed into the office buildings lobby and approached the security desk. "Hello, we have an appointment with Mr Ares." The young woman sitting behind the desk looked up from her magazine with annoyance written across her face. "Yes Ms Mclean. He mentioned you would come by. Head up to the fifth floor." With that she turned her attention back to her magazine. I raised my eyebrow in surprise. Piper usually didn't get that kind of treatment. Usually she got asked for autographs. Piper however walked wordlessly over to the elevator and pressed the button leaving me no choice but to run after her.

One minute later we stepped into the office. The main room was filled with cubicals. My eyes fell on the only person in the room. Mr. Ares was a large man. He looked like a biker with an army hair cut. He gave us a broad grin. "Good evening Mclean. So blondy here needs someone to babysit her?" "No I don't. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. And don't call me blondy!" I declared. He looked at me mildly amused. "Sure you don't. Now would you please follow me?" He led us to a conference room at the other end of the office. "Where is everyone?" Piper asked curiously. Ares chuckled. "It's late Miss Mclean. Plus we are also pretty much booked out. I am even sceptical that we can service you at the moment." My mood brightened up. "Clarissa. Could you come over here?" He called. From another office came a young muscular looking woman who couldn't be much older then me. We sat down around the conference table. With surprising eloquence Mr. Ares came to business: "Tristan hinted that Miss Chase needs someone to keep unwanted individuals away from her." Piper nodded. „Yes, someone to look after her in her everyday life." Mr. Ares and Clarissa started checking something up on a laptop. "It looks like we don't have anyone free who is up for this kind of job." she stated. Ares chuckled. "That's not true. We did just hire someone last week who is free." Clarissa snorted. "Are you talking about Jackson? Really dad?"

Piper interrupted the two. "Who is this Jackson guy? Is he any good?" Ares shrugged. "Well I wouldn't say it that way. The punk is rather tough." Clarissa rolled her eyes. "Dad, really? You are making that guy babysit princess over here? He is a Seal! He would take any job, no matter how dangerous, just no not get bored and you are making him babysit her!" I glared at her. My toll for being called names was full for this week. "So is he free?" Piper asked pointedly. "Yes he is." Ares said with a finality that shut Clarissa up. I sighed in defeat. "Shall we get to business?" Piper asked brightly.

Two months earlier.

Percy pov.

"Spartan. There is a call for you." My most trusted friend called over to me. "Roger that. What kind of call." "Civilian and social. It's Chloe and Sally. I told them you are available so there is no butting out." I groaned. "Okay got it." I got up from my deck chair and glanced at the two men I was hanging out with. Yes, I was twenty six and already in charge of my own SEAL team. One of my men, Lieutenant Mike Anderson gave me the peace sign as I passed him. To be honest I sometimes saw him as my leader. He was a role model even if I was his boss. He was forty-five and had a wife and two children which was rare for people in our profession. So when ever I needed advice he was my first call and when ever I had to make important decisions I consulted him. He had joined my team in the beginning of the deployment and I would have made him my second in command if I hadn't already appointed my partner and best friend Sophie Mcking as my number one. Women usually weren't allowed in fighting units but somehow they still managed to sneak in. All that did where exceptionally good fighters.

She had been the first and so far the only woman to ever become a Seal. There were rumours that the special committee had finally granted her admission to Seal tryouts at gun point. Anderson seemed to be happy with the situation so no changes were made. I passed into the large tent and walked over to the map table and sat down in front of my laptop. When I moved the mouse the screen lit up and showed my mother and half sister. Chloe made a face when she saw me while mom's face brightened. "Percy. Would you please pull on some cloths?" Chloe cried out covering her eyes. I was wearing something! It was not my fault that she could not appreciate my Nemo swimming trunks. "Admit it. You think I am hot." I teased my sixteen year old half sister who pretended to gag. "Hello Percy. How are you doing?" My mother interrupted us looking rather tired. I knew that she was worried about me. In her eyes her little boy was going to war. "Hi mom. I'm good. We are very busy over here but we got a little breathing space because a German detachment of twenty five heavy tanks arrived here last week."

She sighed. "That's not what I meant." She said. Chloe and I exchanged a look. "As Val probably told you I am doing fine and enjoying my job greatly." I gently proclaimed. She sighed looking glum. "I am however pleased to tell you that I will be back home in two months." I lied. In truth my tour was over in two days but Sophie and I wanted to surprise them. Sophie was an orphan who I met back in school and we had joined the military together. She was practically a part of our family and when ever we were home a big sister too Chloe. Also both of us were planning to retire from active duty and Sophie had gotten an offer by the FBI so we would be a lot more home then before. "Percy. Why do you have a beard?" My mom started fussing. I groaned. "I didn't get around to shaving in the last two months. "I said defensively. She raised an eyebrow. "You hair is still short. Oh and since when do you have that tattoo on your left arm?" I cursed inwardly. It was rather cool in my opinion. It was a black replica of the Seal emblem - an eagle holding a Trident and a flintlock pistol in its claws in front of an anchor. I had gotten it because I had lost a bet and now was glad I did. "Mom. Stop being such a buzz kill. It looks cool." Chloe defended me and gave me a wink. "So Percy. What have you been doing today?" My mother asked me. I shrugged. "I lead a morning raid on a local warlord, and then we chilled for the rest of the day. The boys made the mistake of challenging Sophie to play strip poker and lost. Now I have been tanning and sleeping a bit. When we are finished here we will barbecue and then I am gearing up again for another ops."

Chloe grinned broadly while my mother turned gray. "Sorry mom." She sighed. "Well, you two catch up. Oh and you will shave properly. Your beard looks ridiculous and we will talk about that tattoo later. Now I need to do something so catch up with your little sister." She got up and bustled off giving me and Chloe a bit of privacy. Once she was gone the trademark trouble maker grin both Chloe and I had inherited from our mother appeared on her face. She pushed her long sandy blond hair out of her face, her blue eyes sparkling. "Thanks for sending me that helmet cam footage. I finally came to terms with the fact that you actually do real shooting." I grinned. "Oh come on. You saw the four healed gunshot wounds I have been hiding from mom and I got shot in the leg three moths ago." Chloe shrugged. "Still didn't seem real to me."

"So how is school going?" She scowled. "You had to bring that up?" I smirked. "Hey, I know that school sucks. But if you spend the school day sleeping you end up in the military like I did." She sighed. "Well, you did study marine biology over the military and there is nothing wrong with being a Seal. You make me the girl with the most interesting brother in the entire school. Most of my friends think you are hot. Oh and thanks for the tickets to the Piper Mclean concert you gave me to my birthday. It was magnificent! She has recruited one of her friends into her band who is playing the flute. The music was great and both Piper and the flute girl were so gorgeous. I wish I were like that." I gave her a smile. "You are just as beautiful Chloe and yes I am hot." We continued catching up and after a few minutes my mother rejoined us and we continued talking.

**Hope you had fun. Please Review.**

**Winter Wolf over and out**


	2. Last ops for now

**Chapter 2: Last ops for now**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**When written like this they are talking over the radio.**

**To zejaykay: Thank you.**

**To Robo: Thanks. That is good to know.**

**To Guest: I intend to.**

Annabeth pov.

"So when will that guy arrive?" I asked Piper. She sighed. "You are such a control freak. Can't you just relax?" I glared at her. "No, it's bad enough that you are already making decisions for me but at least I want to know the timetable." Piper threw her hands up in exasperation. I stopped our car in front of a red traffic light. "So, where is Jason anyway?" Piper shrugged. "I told him to spend the day with Thalia." I grinned. "You left the house without him just now. I mean if you don't even take the bodyguard thing seriously why should I even bother?" "Annabeth, Would you stop complaining?!" She yelled. I grinned. "The guy is coming tomorrow." I nodded. "So what happens when I go back to Massachusetts?" She shrugged. "Then he will go with you." I could see a glint in her eyes. I sighed. "So what are you planning for today?" She smiled brightly. "Band rehearsals." I glared at her because I was quite sure that I would be forced to participate. "Oh my! Thalia, Hazel and Frank should be arriving any second! We better hurry up!"

Percy pov.

Me and my twenty five team mates had just finished dinner and were now gearing up in the setting sun. We were assembled in front of the main tent that serviced as the headquarters for our team. We each had stacked our gear on one table. I was wearing my desert camouflage jumpsuit and combat boots and was currently attaching my leg holster to my belt. Sophie was using the table next to mine. "So, have you decided on how we pull this off?" She asked while pulling on her bulletproof vest. I shrugged. "We enter the building and catch or kill Abdul while the Rangers cover us." I said while buckling the holster to my leg. "Understood." I attached a radio to my belt and put on the earpiece. Then I pulled my bulletproof vest over my head and tightened the straps. Over it I pulled my combat vest and sled the ballistic armour plates into their pockets. The additional body armour would help to protect my torso. I finished off with my protective gloves and the knee, leg, and elbow armours.

"Perc, we are up in 20 minutes...Sir," Sophie reminded me.

I didn't answer. Instead I picked up my P226 Sig Sauer, dropped it into my holster, and added four spare magazines into their pockets. Finally I mounted my Hk-416 assault rifle spray painted in desert camouflage with the attached shoulder strap. The rifle was equipped with a holographic sight that had a built in laser pointer. The left side of the barrel had a flashlight attached to it. There also was a grenade launcher attached to the barrels bottom. I pulled the action of the rifle a few times to make sure that it wasn't going to jam. After that I inserted a mag into the rifle, let it drop to my side, and secured the ten remaining mags to the pockets of my combat vest. I also attached seven shrapnel grenades to my vest along with three concussion grenades and three flash bangs. Two claymore mines went into a bag attached to my other leg and the first aid kit in the remaining pocket of my vest. I then pulled a black mask over my face and down around my neck. I took the night vision goggles out of their case and attached them to my helmet along with a flashlight and helm side camera and pulled the helmet on. Finally I also connected my radio to the mouthpiece of my helmet. I stood back und looked around.

My team mates were also nearly finished. I saw that Sophie was having problems with her helmet so I walked over to her and helped her with the buckle under her chin.

She glared at me. "I am perfectly capable of closing that myself." I smirked at her. "I know."

She stepped back. "I don't think you do." I understood her problem. She was the only girl in the Seals which meant that she needed to be perfect in everything. She thought she couldn't afford to look weak. "Valkyrie, shut up. He was only trying to help. You are driving us crazy," one of the guys groaned. She turned on him. "No, you shut up." "Be quite." Lieutenant Anderson barked.

When I saw a few guys glaring at Sophie, I cleared my voice. They weren´t really angry at her. Each of them would give their lives for her and vice versa. They were only irritated that she always thought she needed to prove something. She had already won an internal military tournament as the best sniper in the US armed forces. She was absolutely deadly. She could make a head shot with a 50 cal. Barrett from a two mile distance. "Listen up kids. Just because your mother and I are fighting doesn't mean we don't love you. It also doesn't mean you get to pick on your mother." They groaned in annoyance. "To the matter at hand, this is our last ops in this tour. Same time tomorrow we will be in a C-5 on our way back home. First things first, you know the drill. We give the Rangers thirty seconds to secure the LZ and then go in hot via Blackhawk. We enter the building. If possible bag Abdul because there are a few people in Guantanamo who want to talk to him and there are a few other people in Den Haag who also want to see him in front of an international court of justice for human trafficking. If not, we will kill him and bag his body, understood?" There was a confirming grumble. "Now to the really important things. In case you haven't noticed, we are still all alive, even though two of our boys are currently relaxing in Germany. Now that is a first timer as far as I know because we have a bad habit of dying all the time. My point is that it would be nice if you didn't die tonight. Believe me; I don't want to write any letters to loved ones, I have dyslexia. Understood?" A few guys chuckled. "Now, you all heard off Michael Murphy a thousand times. He is also my greatest idol as you know. Of course he is a hero but his sacrifice should be nothing special to us. It should not have to be mentioned that he made the ultimate sacrifice in my opinion because that is what I expect of you when it comes down to it. I expect you to be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice and willingly set aside your life for your team. Is that understood?" There was silence. I knew that I didn't need to give this speech but they needed to understand that they were just like their greatest heroes. "You have all seen combat before. You have all killed people. You all graduated from Seal training and that means you suffered through the hardest, most demanding and harsh military training in the world and you are now here with us, so trust in your training. Until now, you have served under me with honour and integrity and I hope you will do so again tonight." There was a moment of silence until a unified "HURAAAA" echoed over the surprisingly quite military Base. "We are moving out. Form on me."

I turned around and we headed the half mile distance into the centre of the camp. All eyes were on us. Over the last ten months we had earned a lot of respect from the five thousand soldiers that served in this base. We were already respected and feared just because we were Seals but our reputation had grown and they all knew that this was our last ops. Tomorrow another Seal team would arrive. Suddenly some marine officer's voice echoed through the camp. "Attention!"

Suddenly everyone stood straight and saluted. I grinned. "Come on guys."

I climbed into the back of the Blackhawk while it was slowly powering up its engines along with ten other choppers. Three were holding Seals; the other seven were filled with Rangers.

"Spartan, calling in," I barked into my headset. Now, every single operator called in, one by one.

Five minutes later, the doors were slid shut and the birds were in the air. "Fortress to Seal task force. Switch to operational frequency. Inter task force communication will be managed by home operators." I nodded to my self. "Roger that," I replied and we switched to our team internal frequency. We all stayed silent during the flight. After what seemed like ages, the operator called back in. "Rangers inbound on target. Stand by for Seal incursion. T minus one minute."

I sighed. Finally! I looked out of the crew cabin. It was pitch black outside. "Okay unit. Prepare for combat. Double check weapons and necessary gear. Good luck." With that I pulled up my mask so that only my eyes were visible. I switched on my night vision goggles and snapped them down turning my world into a green place. After that, I pulled out my sidearm and popped a bullet into the chamber. I than did the same with my assault rifle. Finally I switched the safety off and went to single fire mode. When that was finished, I listened to the radio chatter for anything important and to the sound of a Seal team getting ready for combat around me.

Suddenly the mission control in the Pentagon called back in. "Fortress here. Be advised, Rangers are taking fire from multiple Tangos. TOT fifteen seconds. Stand bye for Seal incursion."

The blackheads doors were slid open and the light turned off. "Rangers are giving green light. Seal incursion! Seal incursion!" With that the smoke canisters were thrown overboard along with long ropes. "Defensive position on the ground until told otherwise." I ordered. Now I could hear machine gun fire coming from somewhere on the ground. I grabbed the rope and let myself slide down. I could see the smoke canisters were doing a wonderful job so we would be nearly invisible on the ground.

At last, my boots touched the ground. I quickly stepped-up to the side, sank down to one knee, and pointed my rifle in the direction from where the gunfire was coming. The operation was taking place in a small town and I could see the Rangers who were armed with machine guns lying on there stomachs and giving of an nice display of suppressive fire. Finally Valkyrie called in over the radio, "All boots on the ground. Move to rally point." The men from my chopper moved towards the door of our target building, a two story house surrounded by a fifteen foot wall. In front of the gates, we met up with the men from the other choppers. There was only little radio chatter. Everybody knew there was no need for talking right now. "Valkyrie to Fortress. What is waiting for us behind the gate?" There was a pause. "Be advised, multiple Tangos are leaving the buildings and are taking defensive positions." I smirked. "This is Spartan. Requesting fire mission. Suppressive fire on ground targets." I vaguely noticed two of my men setting charges to blow the gate. "Roger that. You are getting fire support from a Blackhawk."

I nodded and turned on the laser pointer of my holographic sight and pressed myself against the wall next to the gate. All other men followed my example. I looked up and saw a Blackhawk moving in. Suddenly the door side mini-gun came to life showering the compound with tracer rounds. I held up three fingers and counted down to zero. The charges pulverized the hinges in the gate. The gate toppled over and hit the ground. I stepped through the opening with my rifle raised. Most of the defenders were already downed by the mini-gun but I spotted a man who managed to escape the hail of bullets by hiding behind a pile of bricks. I aimed and pulled the trigger twice, sending two Teflon rounds into his chest. The man was knocked over by the force of impact and stayed on the ground. The helicopter stopped firing now that a Seal team was moving into the courtyard. We hurried to the buildings entrance door and most of our team followed us. A few were watching the windows. Anderson stepped next to me. "Okay. Flash and bang them." Anderson and another Seal each pulled out a concussion grenade and a flash grenade. I kicked down the door and pressed myself against the wall because bursts of gunfire came from the room. Anderson and the other Seal called Esposito sent their grenades through the doorway. A series of bright flashes of light and two loud bangs came through the door and bordered up windows. Sophie and I moved into the room with the others on our heels.

There were three men inside, armed with AK-47, but they were holding their ears and would probably not be able to think straight for some time. Still Sophie shot two of them and I finished off the third one. I snapped my night vision goggles up, switched on the lamp in my helmet, and the lamp under my rifle. Then I pulled on my safety goggles. Just as I gave the order to secure the floor, I heard men shouting upstairs. Sophie and I headed towards the stairs with a few of our men behind us. I gave Sophie and the others the signal to stop and pulled out a frag grenade.

I pulled out the ring and threw it up the stair way. There was a loud bang followed by screaming.

Sophie took point and headed up the stairs, with me at her heels. She moved out of the stair case and raised her rifle. She shot twice and then called. "Two Tangos down." One of the seals called in: "Hotdog to Spartan, Ground floor is cleared. We are bagging files and hard drives. We also found two women and four children." "Understood. Guard them until exvil and bag all possible Intel." With that I continued upstairs and we swarmed into the upper floor. It took us four seconds to secure the entire floor. On the way, my team members shot a few other defenders. Now we had secured the entire floor. Anderson attached a charge to the door and counted down the seconds. A few other operatives and I pulled out flash bangs and concussion grenades.

The door was blown from its hinges and the volley of non lethal grenades soured through the door. Finally we stepped into the room. We had made it to our target. Abdul was cowering in the bed, together with two of his wives. We swarmed into the room with our guns pointing at the three. Sophie stepped forward and smashed the shoulder piece of her rifle into the man's face. She grabbed him by the scruff of his pyjamas, dragged him off the bed, and dropped him to the floor. A few seconds later, Abduls wrists were tied together behind his back and he had a sack over his head. "Spartan to fortress. We got him. Prepare for exvil. Team, get ready to move out. Assemble in the courtyard." Two Seals grabbed the unconscious man by his arms and we left the room and the house. After what seemed like an eternity we finally left the courtyard and formed up with the Rangers. The remaining fighters had retreated. "Sixty seconds to exvil. V-22 Ospreys are inbound." The Rangers assembled around us and we retreated out of the village. A few hundred feet ahead of us, two Ospreys landed on the desert floor. As we approached them, the aft loading ramps were lowered and we climbed into the red lit crew cabin. Moments later we were airborne again. I switched the safety of my rifle on, turned off the flashlights, and pulled my helmet off. One of the Rangers punched me in the shoulder. "Good work, dude." I grinned. "You too. Any casualties on your side?" He shook his head. "Nothing major. Mostly scratches but one guy got hit in the thigh and another lost his hearing." I nodded. We fist bumped. I made eye-contact with Sophie. "Good job Valkyrie." I congratulated her. She nodded tiredly. "Yeah, you too." Both of us would be leaving active duty and would be placed in the Navy reserves. For now, this was our last ops.

Piper pov.

I groaned. Damn the hangovers! I was lying in bed and held onto my head afraid that it would roll off the pillow. Yesterday evening we had forced Annabeth to participate in our band rehearsal. At some point however, the rehearsal had ended in a house party with lots of drinking. Annabeth was probably the only one who actually wasn't completely drunk in the end but then again she didn't like drinking. Jason had arrived later that night and found us dancing, giggling, and drinking. I vaguely remembered trying to seduce him. Luckily the big guy had turned me down and made me to go to bed. Since my dad had hired Jason part of his job was to keep me out of trouble. That involved making sure I didn't overdo it at parties. Damn, this was embarrassing. I couldn't possibly face him ever again after this.

Much too early someone knocked on my bedroom door. "Come in." It was Annabeth and she had the audacity to look rested. "Did you only pretend to drink last night?!" She nodded. "I am preparing breakfast with Jason. By the way, Jason said you nearly seduced him." I groaned. "Get out." I begged trying to disguise my begging as a demand. She raised an eyebrow. "I hate you."

Her usually beautiful and welcome laughter echoed through the room. Today it only added to my migraine. I sat up and threw a pillow at her which was a big mistake. I carefully lay back and held onto my head once more.

"Oh, by the way, the bodyguard you hired for me should be arriving in the next few hours."

**Okay, it's me again. I hope you hade fun. I believe Percy and Annabeth will be meeting in one or two chapters. I just got myself a beta but he still has to go over chapter one.**

**Please Review. **

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	3. Home and job

**Sorry that I took this Long. I am actually going over these chapters to raise the quality of the Entertainment. I hope you enjoyed this.**

**To ThatKid: Yeah. I did go over it.**

**To Guest: Will do. Hope you enjoy this.**

**To Guest: Okay. I will do my best.**

**To Bethany Tucker: Thank you for the original offer but I a, doing this with my mother now. That means no awekward lemons.**

**To huntergo123: Sorry for making that mistake. No, this isn´t a T raited Story.**

**To chimpy888´: I intend to.**

**To QWERTY135: I can´t wait either.**

**To Guest: Thank you old fiend. I miss you.**

* * *

><p>Percy pov.<p>

For the first time in months I was back home in New York City and it was late November. Compared to the desert climate I had gotten used to, it was freezing outside. We were dressed in our white officer uniforms with the caps on and our medals pinned to the chest. Around our necks we carried the medals of honour we had received two years ago. On that occasion we had stayed behind to cover the retreat of our team extracting a few hostages from a country we weren't supposed to be in.

We hadn't really planned on surviving but in the last second the Secretary of Defence, Athena Olympiad, had put her foot down and had granted us air support and an AC-130 gunship. She had even sent in Rangers to meet us midway. I smiled to myself. It had been a good fight.

Finally we were standing in front of the high-school where our military career had started. "It's strange to be back here at Goody." Sophie breathed. I nodded. "Remember when we got in trouble for pranking Mr Bofis for dating my mother?" I recollected. Sophie laughed softly. Paul and I got along well enough now. Actually we had contacted him this morning to set up a surprise for Chleo. "So let's pull this off, bro." I nodded and we walked across the courtyard of the school and up the steps until we reached the front door. There we paused for another second before pushing the doors open and stepping into the warm entrance hall.

"So, we are looking for room 221. Didn't we have our math periods in that room?" She mused. I snorted. "Yes." Sophie's eyes sparkled mischievously as we headed into the school. On our way we passed a few students and teachers, all of which stared at us. Luckily the hallways were empty because everyone was in class. Then we headed up towards the second floor and down another hallway until we finally stood in front of the classroom.

I jokingly held up three fingers like I always did before we did a tactical entry through a door. My team mate rolled her eyes and slowly opened the door. All eyes in the classroom fell on us - well all except for one pair. My sister was apparently practising on a very good imitation of me during my time as a student. She used the period to throw in a few hours of sleep. I just couldn't understand how she still managed to keep up her grades. My stepfather, who happened to be the teacher, winked at me and I waved at him. Then I held a finger to my lips telling everyone to be silent. Sophie and I headed over to Chloe and kneeled down next to her. My friend picked up a pen from the table and poked her in the ear. Chloe groaned indignantly at the disturbance of her sleep.

"Chloe, if I was as enthusiastic at my job as you about your education, your brother would have me doing the laundry of our entire team for a month." Sophie chuckled. Chloe's eyes snapped open and she looked at us gawking like a fish. Finally she seemed to gather herself because her eyes widened. "Percy?" Suddenly I was locked in a choking embrace. The force of impact she created as she launched herself at me threw me on my back. "I can't breathe Chloe!" I gasped. She loosened her grip and right away gave me a playful glare. "You have some explaining to do." She informed me.

"Gee, Chloe. It's nice to see you too." Her eyes twinkled with amusement. "Aren't you mommy's little boy. You've already shaved." Finally Paul came over. "Okay Chloe. I've arranged for you to get off for the rest of the day. Would you please pack your things and let me continue with the lesson." That was something Paul didn't need to say twice and ten seconds later we were leaving the classroom. "Percy! Sophie!" We turned around to Paul. "It's good to have you back." Sophie waved once and I we stepped out of the classroom.

"So, should we go straight home or do you want do anything else first?" I asked innocently. My sister started grinning like crazy. "I need Sophie at 4:00 pm but for now we could have a macchiato at Starbucks and talk." We hooked our elbows and left the school.

Piper pov.

Hazel, Thalia and I were working on a new song. Frank was playing ego shooters with Jason in the living room. Annabeth was nowhere to be seen. Most likely she was at the pool in a deckchair enjoying her favourite pastime - studying. Suddenly the doorbell rang jerking me out of my concentration. That must be him. Before I could even move Jason was already dutifully on his way to the front door. "Piper, Annabeth's bodyguard is here!" I sighed and made my way to the lobby of my house. He was tanned, had sea-green eyes and his black hair was cut short. He was dressed in black jeans and a dark blue v-neck shirt. At first glance he didn't look that impressive next to Jason who was a few inches taller and had a broader chest. After having a closer look I changed my opinion. The guy looked extremely athletic.

Although his posture was relaxed there was something tough about him. Even though he was smiling, his eyes where guarded. He couldn't be much older than me but everything about him told the story of more than one lifetime. "Good morning m'am. I apologize for being late and assure you that it won't happen again." I looked at him surprised for a second before checking my wrist watch. The guy was five minutes late. "Don't worry. Oh and by the way, call me Piper. Don't you have any suitcases, Mr Jackson? Jason can help you bring them up."

He shrugged. "I wasn't properly informed about the living arrangements and I am flexible. So what ever you and Mrs. Chase feel more comfortable with is fine with me." I gave him an uncertain smile. "Are you alright with spending tonight at a hotel and moving your things over here tomorrow?" He nodded. "Okay then. I guess you want to talk to Annabeth?" "Yes, m'am...sorry I mean Piper." I smirked. "She is in the back yard studying." He nodded and walked into the house leaving me there with Jason. That meant things quickly got awkward.

Jason cleared his voice. "What is up with that guy? He looked..." Embarrassed even more I realised that I had forgotten to inform Jason about the new bodyguard. "He is a Navy seal." I said in a hushed voice for some reason. "What! For real?" I nodded. "Jason whistled quietly. "He was awfully polite." I said to myself. Jason looked at me in disbelief. "You have a guy like that working for you and you care if he is polite?" Finally I decided that ignoring the problem any longer was useless. "Jason, about last night..." He gave me a small smile. "No, problem Piper. I understand." With that he left. Obviously he didn't understand at all.

Annabeth pov.

"Mrs. Chase?" A deep male's voice hailed me. My annoyance about being distracted passed when I realised who this was. "I assume that you are Mr Jackson?" He nodded and sat down on the deck chair next to me. Giving up I closed my book, sat up, and lifted my sunglasses. We shook hands and I looked into his eyes. Suddenly I realised that I didn't know what to say. This man was more than intimidating. His eyes were a dark shade of green and showed a frightening sense of alertness but also a hint of sadness. He looked like he was born to fight. He was sitting in perfect balance and moved with laid back gracefulness. My instincts were yelling at me to stay away from him.

"So, I guess you will me by paid stalker." The soldier opposite of me chuckled. "I guess I am. May I ask you a few questions before we get started?" I nodded. "First of all: How do you think you act when threatened?" I paused and thought about the question for a second. "I lash out." He nodded. "Next question. Do you have any enemies I should know about? People that hold a grudge against you for instance?" I shook my head. "Very well. Now, I must ask you to come to me directly if you are ever blackmailed or threatened. It is my job to deal with those things." "Understood." I replied. "I also feel obliged to remind you that the US Navy can call me back into active duty if the need should arise." I nodded again.

Suddenly Jason called over from the house. "Jackson. Want a beer?" "What do you have?" My body guard called back. "German Pilse. I illegally imported it after the world tour." He nodded smirking. "Okay, I'm in." He got up and turned to me again. "Please call me Percy." He surprised me with a boyish smile and headed back to the house.

Chloe pov.

I unlocked the door to our flat and was met by the smell of freshly made chocolate chip cookies. I looked at Percy and Sophie and saw the dreamy sparkling in their eyes that they always got when they smelled our mother's cookies. "Mom, I'm home! Look who I brought for tea time! "Coming!" She appeared in the hallway and cried out when she saw the two. After they got over the hugs and the crying she finally asked: "When did you get back?" Percy smirked and kissed our mother on the forehead. "We landed this morning and decided to surprise Chloe first. Do I smell cookies?" My mother laughed. "Yes, I made them blue." Percy's eyes lit up. I should say he had an obsession with the colour blue. She turned to Sophie. "Thank you for keeping Percy and yourself alive for the last ten months."

Percy made a face when the two women embraced but quickly brightened up in a childish way when he saw his moment of opportunity arise. Sneaking off in direction of the kitchen he was right away caught by our mother. She always knew when any one of us was up to no good. That was quite a deed considering Percy's and Sophie's combat training. She reached out and caught Percy by the ear. "Oh no, you don't. They are still cooling down. Now let me get a look at you." She said sternly. Percy stopped and hung his head. His mother took the officers cap off and ruffled his hair.

"You look thinner. You need to eat more." She said critically. "He eats more then enough Sally. He just converts the food into muscles." Sophie defended her nest brother. Our mother continued fussing over her son for another minute until she finally commented. "At least you got rid of that ridiculous beard. But don't think you are off the hook for the tattoo." With that she rounded on Sophie. "Now to you." Sophie gulped and stepped forward. They may be battle hardened Seals but Sally Jackson was a force of nature.

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed this a lot. Please give me a moralboosting amout of Reviews.<strong>

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	4. Chapter 4

Hello everyone. Now I hate these to but here is an author´s note. I have to study for exsams and I will beraly if at all have time to write these Story. Sorry, hang in here with me.

Winter Wolf over and out.


	5. Talking

**Have fun with this chapter. I know I already posted this chapter once but I am making a few minor changes to it plus I needed to inform you about a few things. As you might have noticed I deleted most of my stories And I thought I should explain why. Those stories were badly written and had a bad or had a bad plot and I was simply to embarrassed to keem up were everyone can read them. They were childish or offensive. Okay, this is it so far.**

**Enjoy this chapter again **

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**To Guest: Will do my best.**

**To QWERTY135: Yes, it´s all three months apart.**

**To : Yeah yeah yeah.**

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**To percabethforever6775: Good to know.**

**To Bethany Tucker: Thank you.**

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><p>Piper pov.<p>

I sat on the kitchen table and found myself staring at Jason. He was playing Call of Duty with Frank. Jackson was sitting in the Sofa with a bottle of beer in his hand looking slightly bored while following the game.

"So Percy, why did you leave the military? It sounds as if you had a very exciting job." He grinned. "Yes it was. Sadly my mother kept on bugging me to settle down somewhere. She wasn't too pleased that I was away all the time. Jason chuckled. "I see. And my annoying sister is complaining about me being a bodyguard. I am even protecting one of her friends and it's not exactly a high-risk job." Then he turned and looked at Thalia who was sitting next to me in the dining room looking utterly unimpressed. "You see, his job was much more dangerous then mine", Jason complained indignantly. Thalia rolled her eyes. "And his mother put a stop to it." She threw back. The blond boy pouted and Frank sniggered while Percy looked mildly amused.

After a while Annabeth came back into the house and crossed her arms. "So Piper, I have to catch the next flight to San Francisco to be home in time for the family dinner. Do I have to take Mr Jackson with me?" She demanded crossing her arms. I cracked a smile. "Yes, of course." Percy looked at us with a raised eyebrow. "We are flying to San Francisco?" I nodded. "You two will have dinner with Annabeth's family and then spend the night at a hotel."

Our new bodyguard sighed. "And I was hoping to not have to fly again in the next twenty four hours. Never mind but I need to get my luggage from the hotel." Annabeth smiled at him ignoring me. Obviously she was still mad at me. "No problem. In that case we should leave in thirty minutes." Percy sighed again.

Annabeth pov.

I felt almost sorry for Percy. I was sure that he took his body guard job very serious. So I tried to not let my displeasure at having a babysitter out at him even though he had forced me to ride shotgun in my own Mini-Cooper.

He had won the argument by informing me that he would be a poor bodyguard if he let me drive. But as it turned out he was a very calm and relaxed driver so I couldn't complain too much. "So Ms Chase, I understand that you study at MIT?" I rolled my eyes out of habit. "Yes, I do. Call me Annabeth." He gave me a short smile. "Okay then Annabeth. What do you do?" I smiled softly when I thought of my favourite subject. "Yes, I am studying theoretical Physics and Astrophysics." He nodded slowly not taking his eyes of the traffic. "Sounds interesting. Not that I know to much about the subject." Wanting to keep up the conversation I replied with a question of my own. "Did you study anything while you were in the military?"

Percy chuckled. "Yes, I did the theoretical part to become a marine biologist. I took the subject after the magazine National Geographic hired me as a diver when I was on leave." Turning the subject quickly back to me, he asked: "So how come an MIT student ends up on a poster taped to the wall of my little sister's bedroom?" I groaned. "After the MIT student made the mistake of joining her best friend on her first world tour." Finally Percy stopped the car and I realised we were standing in front of a hotel. "Wait here. I have to grab a few things." He got out of the car. A few minutes later he dropped a black backpack in the backseat and sat back next to me.

"You took the car keys." I noticed as he started the car. "Yes, I did." He replied grinning. "Did you think I was going to drive away?" The black-haired man smirked. "No, but I am not interested in bad surprises." He kept his face straight but the twinkling in his eyes gave him away. He turned to me. "My turn to ask a question. Did you enjoy your world tour?" I rolled my eyes again. "Yes, I did but I am not sure if the fallout is worth it now. But more about you. How was your former Seal life like?" He smiled. "Haven't you guessed that diving out of submarines and jumping out of airplanes is enjoyable?" "Well I suspect that isn't all there is to it." He shook his head. "No, it isn't. There is also the more sensitive part of what we do. The tactical part. We aren't like the normal fighting unites that are often locked in combat for hours. We go in, get the job done and then run like hell because most of the time we are outnumbered. Does that answer your question?" I nodded. "Kind of." Your turn then. Now tell me, how is it to slip into fame?" I grimaced. "Before the tour everyone saw me as the attractive nerd that keeps to herself. Now I am the popular famous girl that everyone wants to be friends with. I really wish I could go back to my nerd-life" He cracked a smile. "Do you have any family?" I asked. "Yes, I have a step-sister, nest-sister, my mother and step father. Then there is also the rest of my team." I nodded. "You?" I shrugged. "I have two step-siblings, my father, and the monster of a step mother. Of course there is Piper and her father. I spend most of my youth with them. They took me in, after I ran away from home when I was six." He gave me a sympathetic glance. "So, I assume that you will go back to collage when break is over?" I nodded. "Do you live alone?" I shook my head. "Nah, I share a flat with two friends of mine so you will have to take a flat near by." "We are at the airport." He informed me. I looked around startled. The drive had appeared much shorter than usual. Maybe Percy wasn't such bad company after all.

We were sitting in the chairs waiting for boarding. Everything had gone well. No one had even recognized me yet. I began to enjoy my short moment of peace. "Hello, can I get your autograph?" I jerked out of my thoughts and looked up to the thirteen year old girl. She held out a pen "What do you wan't me to sign?" I asked. She held out a pamphlet of our concert that was going to take place in two months. On the front of the pamphlet the words "The Odyssey" glowed in golden letters. "The Odyssey" was the name of Piper's band. I had no idea how they had finally come up with that name because I hadn't been listening when Piper explained it to me.

I looked around nervously. Luckily the large room was mostly empty and no one paid any attention. Obviously I wasn't as popular as I had feared. When Piper went to the airport the paparazzi were never far behind.

I quickly wrote my name on the pamphlet and handed it back to her. The girl seemed to understand my worry and thanked me quietly before moving on without looking back.

"Is that normal for you?" Percy asked. "It's awkward. I am actually surprised only she recognized me so far." I admitted. "Well you aren't wearing any make up." He pointed out. I gave him a look. "Personally I think you look better without makeup." He said quickly. Before I could answer, we were called for our flight and boarded the small turbo-prop aircraft.

Twenty minutes later we were airborne. To my surprise my bodyguard was slightly pale. "Everything alright Percy?" I asked. He gave me a brave smile. "I just don't enjoy flying too much. I used to be really scared of it before I joined the military." I raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't Seal stand for Sea-air-land?" I teased him. He rolled his eyes. "I lost my fear during US-Marine boot camp. It also helps, that I know all the pilots I work with personally." We stayed silent for a minute. "I have Arachnophobia." I offered. He looked at me surprised. "You are afraid of spiders?" he asked sceptically. I nodded shuddering slightly. "I had you for a rather tough girl." He smiled. "I swear, if I see a spider I panic. I don't know why. There are few things I am afraid of but for some reason spiders are one of them."

He grinned at me. "So if I hear you screaming..." I glared at him. "Then you better come fast and kill the little octa-legged beast." I said savagely. He looked at me warily. "Remind me to never cross you. Now, I am going to take a nap if you don't mind." With that he closed his eyes leaving me to struggle with my Physics book. I really hated having Dyslexia, sadly I loved books.

After what seemed like hours the airplane started it's decent as it approached San Francisco. Shortly before landing I shook my body guard awake and decided that it was best not to mention the fact that he drooled in his sleep. Finally the aircraft touched the ground.

Before we entered the arrival gate I pulled on my Yankees baseball cap and looked down at the floor. "Do you want to get a cab or should we rent a car?" Percy asked quietly. "Let's get a car. We need to find a hotel this evening." I smiled relieved when we managed get a vehicle with out anyone recognizing me.

Percy was driving and obviously lost in his own thoughts while I was checking my Facebook account. Hundreds of friendship requests and even more private messages, quite the usual. Then I had an idea. I wrote Percy's name in the search bar and quickly found him. First I sent him a friendship request and then I decided to stalk him. His profile picture showed him and a young rather pretty woman around his age, a middle aged woman who looked like she could be his mother, and a sandy blond teenage girl. Percy and the other young woman were both wearing white officers' uniforms so I assumed they were friends from the service.

Another picture showed Percy, the woman from the profile picture, and some more men. They were posing in dessert combat gear with serious looking guns in front of an M1A1 battle tank with their arms locked with each other. Two of the guys had wrapped an American flag over their shoulders. I rolled my eyes and scrolled down. There were more family pictures and pictures from his job, all showing men with guns, mostly fooling around. The only more serious picture showed Percy sitting in the open slide door of a flying helicopter and pointing a rifle down at the dessert below.

Smirking I posted beneath the title picture "You really post these kinds of pictures? How does anyone take you serious?" I was sure that he couldn't miss my comment. It really stood out. "What are you doing?" My driver asked me. "Stalking you on Facebook. You should expect a few friend requests with your new job and all" He pursed his lips. "I won't be." Then he turned his attention back to the street. "Have you been in San Francisco before?" Percy grimaced. "Yes once, but only work related. I didn't get around to go shopping." I laughed out loud. "You won't get the chance this time around either. I hate shopping!"

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><p><strong>That´s it for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Snuck in a bit writing time. Please Review,<strong>

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	6. Severed ties

**As many of you have probably noticed I have removed a few stories from my story list. I did this because I just wasn't happy with my them. I was kind of embarrassed by the mistakes I made in them and would have had to give them a total work over which would take over two hundred work hours by my calculations. Sadly I am not in the mood for that so now they are gone. Don't worry, I will bring in the most amusing parts from those stories in this one.**

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><p>Percy pov.<p>

I caught an uneasy expression on Annabeth's face. "Not happy about seeing them?" She shook her head. "It's not that. Meeting my dad is usually awkward. He sometimes tries to treat me as if I was still six years old." I smiled. "Yeah. It sucks to reconnect with family when you've changed. They don't seem to accept that you have become a different person." I turned off the road into a suburb community with houses on both sides. "You made the same experience?" She asked. I nodded. "It wasn't that bad at first but after I joined the Seals it became rather tiresome. Trust me; I ruined more than one welcome back party." I said and stopped the car. "Here we are!" "Obviously!" She replied rolling her eyes, something she seemed to do a lot. "Should I wait here for you?" I asked her. Annabeth smiled at me. "Of course not. I am not going in there alone if I don't have to." I nodded and we climbed out of the car and headed towards the house side by side. Annabeth rang the doorbell and stepped back. Finally a disoriented looking man opened the door. He had blue eyes and dark blond hair with some grey showing at his temples. He beamed at Annabeth and then gave me a suspicious look.

"Hello Annabeth." He gave her an awkward hug. "And good evening young man." His eyes flashed between Annabeth and me. "Are you two...? " Annabeth blushed slightly. "No dad. He is my new bodyguard." He looked confused for a second. "Ah yes. I am Dr Frederick Chase. Pleased to meet you." We shook hands. "I am Percy Jackson." There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Well, come in." He invited us brightly. We stepped into the house. "Bobby, Matthew, Annabeth is here!" He called. A loud yelling was followed by the sound of hurried steps upstairs. Two identical looking boys around sixteen came running down the stairs. They were blond and had blue eyes like their father. They seemed exactly like the kind of kids teachers would keep a close eye on. I should know; I was just like that back then.

"Annabeth!" One of them yelled. They stopped dead in front of her. "Hello Matthew. Hello Bobby." "Hi Annabeth. " They said at the same time. Their sister gave them a critical look and then smiled." It's good to see you two!" She said and ruffled their hair making them complain indignantly.

Later I was sitting next to Annabeth at the dining table with her family. I had imagined Annabeth's step mother to be some kind of monster but it seemed as if she was trying hard to mend things with Annabeth. "So, Mr Jackson. Since when have you been a bodyguard?" Annabeth's dad tried to start a conversation. I grinned. "This is my first assignment, Dr Chase." He nodded. "Are you good?" He asked nervously. I shrugged and was just about to reply when Annabeth cut in. "Dad, stop pestering him." Dr Chase sighed.

Trying to stop the uncomfortable silence I tried to pick up the conversation again. "What are you doing for a living, Mr Chase?" His eyes lit up. "I am a history professor at the local collage and at West point." I leaned forward with interest. "West point? What is your speciality?" The professor got the slightly crazed gleam in his eyes of a scientist talking about his work. "Military history. I specialize in the First World War era. It is surprisingly hard to get facts straight when there is no real video documentation and the last surviving eye witnesses have a hard time remembering their own name not to mention the battle formations they fought in. He sadly shook his head and then suddenly brightened up again. "Has Annabeth mentioned that I purchased an airworthy Sobwith Camel from a Collector?" Annabeth gave me a desperate look.

However, I couldn't help but get excited. Flight capable plains from that era were extremely rare. "Perhaps you know Professor Brunner. I took his class just out of interest in the subject." The professor's eyes sparkled. "Yes I do. He is a close colleague of mine. You went to West point?" I nodded. "I majored on Marine Biology. I never attended any seminars personally; I was nearly always oversees. Most classes I had to follow over Satcom or had them sent per video file. Mr Brunner used to tutor me in high school. That helped a lot."

The professor nodded. "Marines?" I shook my head. "No sir, I am a Seal operator." The teacher chuckled. "Really! So you are good! I currently have two of your kind signed up in my class and never met one of them personally." Suddenly we realized that everyone else was staring at us. "You are a geek, Percy!" Annabeth noted amused.

Before I could retort to this brutal attack against my honour Mrs Chase chided her husband. "Frederick, we agreed not to talk about Sobwith Camels during meals." He glared at his wife.

Annabeth pov.

I was astounded by how well my biological father and bodyguard got along. He seemed to genuinely like Percy which was more then could be said about the two boyfriends I had brought here. True, my relationships usually lasted less then a week. If I was honest I hadn´t even gotten around to kissing one of them, usually not seeing the point of exchanging slava or just not having the courage. Most of the time the guys took a French leave or soon turned out to be jerks. I had come to the conclusion that I didn't have any talent at finding nice boyfriends. I decided to concentrate on my food, which I had to admit was delicious. As expected Matthew and Bobby were finished with dinner in record time and took their leave to play computer in their rooms.

A few minutes later Percy and Frederick disappeared into Frederick's office to check out Frederick's newest project leaving me alone with Susan. She cleared her throat. "This dinner conversation did go much better than I expected." She said. I nodded. "Listen Annabeth, I'm sorry that I always treated you bad when you were little. I have no idea what got to me back then. You were a little child and I made you feel unwanted. If there is anything I can do to set things right please tell me." She said quickly, sounding as if this had been building up for some time. I froze up for a second. "It's alright. I'm over the past." She sighed in relief. "I can't believe I treated you like that. You were six." She said distressed. I said silent not knowing how to reply.

"Have you ever seen any pictures of your real mother?" She suddenly asked. I looked at her confused. "I thought there weren't any. You told me that she just left me at your doorstep." Susan sighed. "Frederick met her when he went to West point himself. She helped him graduate in the end. Then she broke things of and disappeared. We only found out recently what she does for a living."

My eyes widened. "What? How?" She smiled sadly. "You will understand when you see a picture of her. Follow me." We got up and she led me upstairs and headed to the door of my fathers office. When I entered I froze in surprise. The room hadn't changed at all since I ran away as a small child. The walls were lined with old-fashioned bookshelves that were overflowing with books. An aviator's jacket and cap was lying on the messy desk, and a good portion of the room was consumed by a huge square table for table top strategy game fields. On one side of the playing field was a river with a miniature village opposite from it. The surrounding terrain looked like farmland.

My father had set up a middle European battlefield with miniature tank formations and soldier figures facing each other. There were also tiny bird planes suspended from the ceiling by threads. What made the scene surreal however were the two grown men standing on either side of the table playing war. Percy was just moving a tank brigade towards one of the infantry regiments on my father's side of the field making engine noises with his mouth followed by shooting noises. My dad toppled over a few figures with a mad sparkle in his eyes. Then he plucked a bird plane from its string and let it fly an attack on one of Percy's infantry regiments while also producing engine noises. They changed into machine-gun noises as soon as the aircraft passed over the troops. Percy toppled over the tiny figures.

"What are you two doing?" Susan asked incredulously. The two looked up surprised. "We are testing how the battle would have gone if the British and Americans had taken Percy's approach. I suspect however that he still has a plan up his sleeve because he is concentrating his air attacks and artillery on my armour defending my flank at the river. He also pulled back nearly all of his AA-guns to defend his HQ in the city leaving his troops dangerously exposed."

Percy glared at him and announced. "Behold my master plan." Then he placed a few figures at the rivers shore next to my father's camp. "Percy, although your move to take out my HQ, armoury and artillery is not without merit I fear they didn't have Seals back then. The frogmen were introduced in World War II and the Seals shortly after." Percy scratched the back of his head. "Are you sure Frederick? Maybe they used arm floats or something." Frederick nodded sadly. Great, the two were already on first name bases!

Susan cut into their conversation. "Okay. On second thought I don't want to know. I am just going to take the black photo album and leave." She hurried over towards a shelf and grabbed the thick, leaver bound book and walked back to the door. "Let's just pretend we never witnessed this." She told me and we left the room. Deciding to tease Percy later about his behaviour I closed the door behind us and left the two alone. Susan and I stared at each other for a few seconds before simultaneously saying, "Men." With that we walked back down stairs.

"The reason why I didn't like you was because at the time your father obviously still thought a lot about your mother. Even than you must have been just like her. I felt threatened by that. Of course that doesn't excuse my behaviour but I thought you should know."

Susan opened the album and skipped through a few pages until she found what she was looking for. It was a picture of my father and familiar looking young woman. Both looked like they were about my age at the time. The woman looked exactly like me. She had the same face, the same silver-grey eyes, and a familiar expression on her face I knew from random looks into mirrors. The only difference was that she had thick black hair while mine was curly golden blond. Only now I made the connection. I realized that this was a younger version of Secretary of Defence Athena Olympiad. I stared at the picture for a few seconds and then closed the book. "Well, I've never even met her in person so I guess it doesn't really matter." I said quietly.

I had always wanted to know who my real mother was and finally realized that it wasn't important. Having a name didn't make her a mother. We stood silent for a few seconds. "Can we talk about something else?" I asked. She nodded. "Good catch by the way." She said grinning. "Sorry?" I asked confused. "Your bodyguard - he is gorgeous." "He is?" I asked surprised. Susan rolled her eyes. "Yes indeed!" She informed me exasperated. "Well, I only met him a few hours ago." Susan rolled her eyes at me. "No wonder your relationships never lasted. By what criteria did you pick them?" I shrugged. Sadly that was a very good question.

Percy pov.

Out of curiosity we had pretended that my spec ops attack was legit and continued playing after Annabeth and Mrs Chase had left. The attack was a great success. As it turns out artillery wasn't too effective in close quarter battle. After I had taken the HQ Frederick's unites had quickly fallen apart and surrendered. We left the office discussing the battle and headed down the stairs. We fell silent when we spotted Mrs Chase and Annabeth in the living room looking at us.

"It seems as if you have finally found a playmate Frederick. " Susan commented. We must have looked puzzled because she added. "Come on. You two were playing with toy airplanes." I couldn't believe she had just said that and judging by the way Frederick gasped he was just as shocked. "They aren't toys. They are authentic, miniature replica of tanks and aircraft and the collection cost me over 5k." "And we weren't playing." I added. "We were running battle simulations for educational purposes."

The two women looked unimpressed. "You were both making engine noises with you mouths." Annabeth said dryly. "And you Frederick, bought toys for five thousand dollars." Mrs Chase added. "Five thousand dollar, Frederick? And you are constantly complaining about me buying shoes!" He crossed his arms. "Four pairs of shoes are more than enough." He claimed. I agreed whole heartedly but had to admit that even I had more then four pairs. But all of them served a purpose and were needed. I decided however not to comment any further.

Annabeth pov.

We bade our farewells, headed back to the car and climbed in. Of course I had to ride shotgun again but I didn't complain seeing as I was rather tired. "Your family is great." Percy said a few minutes after we started driving. "I can't actually believe my father gave you permission to date me." I said between gritted teeth. "He did? Is it his decision?" Percy asked confused. I groaned. "Didn't you listen? He said that he didn't mind guys like you around his daughter and that he hoped to see you again which no guy has ever heard before you and no, it's not his decision." He staid silent as he continued driving, his face impassive in the dim light emanating from the dashboard. I suddenly realized that what Susan had said was true. He was beautiful in his own way. Especially when he didn't have his guard up and his jaw muscles weren't clenched. I noticed that I was occupied by silly girls' stuff and let my thoughts wander back to home territory, big bangs, and about what I should write my doctor thesis about.

Much to everyone's surprise it had taken me only three quarters of a year to graduate from high-school. After that I went to MIT and had been there ever since. I took every class I could just to kill my time while coaching Piper through her high-school years. That was no easy task. Piper was not exactly a dedicated student and even had a criminal record for theft. At least Tristan was very grateful for my efforts.

Everyone thought that Piper was only trying to get her father's attention because he was always working on some movie. I knew however that she simply talked people into giving her things. Piper had even talked a sales man into giving her a BMW for free. Piper was able to get anyone to do just about anything for her. The only one she failed to wrap around her finger was me which was why we got along well.

Nearly all guys, especially Jason were under her spell. I suspected that she might have a hard time doing that with Percy which had one great advantage. I could most certainly tell him things without Piper seducing him into spilling my secrets.

"So, it appears you made up with Susan." He asked gently. I nodded. "As far as you can make up a life long history of hatred and distrust in a single night." He nodded. I yawned deeply feeling tired all of the sudden and closed my eyes, trusting Percy to find the closest suitable hotel. That was a big progress for me considering that I was known to have control issues. Percy's voice let me pulled me out of my slumber. "We are there."

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><p><strong>Hello, my dear friends and raders and now also my little sister. I hope you are doing greatly. I will still go over this chapter tomorrow but I just needed to update. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. <span>Now, don´t forget to Review, follow and favorte my Story because I´ve desevered it.<span> **

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	7. It starts

**Hello, people. How are you. I know it´s been a long time but it takes a very long time to go over these chapter and my mom, who is my Beta is very busy. I´ve already written two chapters ahead and will try to perfect them as fast as possible. Love you my readers.**

**To Guest: Good idea. Perhaps I will use that idea.**

**To Bianca Selena Jackson: Here you go. You are frigging awesome.**

**To Guest: I deleated those stories.**

**To PARN of hero: That is a great idea.**

**To PARN of hero: I can´t always be perfect.**

**To PARN of hero: I always love Percabeth interaction.**

**To HopeStrengthLove: Thank you.**

**To Bethany Tucker: Thank you.**

**To asucoffeeaddict: Good to know.**

**To marsdex: She is one of my favorites.**

**To Eat Lead-riture: Me too.**

**To Aveca: Yeah, me too.**

**To Bianca Selena Jackson: Percabeth friendship is nearly as adorable is the persabeth itself.**

**To PARN of hero: 5000 dollars.**

**To Astarate: Yes, I will.**

**To : You are so adorable.**

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><p>Annabeth pov.<p>

I got out of bed. It was about 01:00 am in the morning. It would have been wise to try and get some more sleep but I had spent the last two hours working on a hypothesis about stabilizing the magnetic field needed to keep plasma at a temperature at 150 million degrees Celsius inside a fusion reactor.

Of course my idea was far fetched but the possibility of solving all the world's power problems by staying up for one night was a more then worthy sacrifice, especially since highly stable artificial magnetic fields were also needed to contain dark matter should someone someday find out how to harvest the stuff. The stability of the field was absolutely necessary because a few grams of the stuff had the potential to take out a good chunk of a planet if any form of matter should meet it. The smallest mistake or fluctuation could compromise the container which would create the largest explosion ever caused by man kind.

So, in other words I had work to do. I quickly pulled on jeans, flip-flops and a shirt, grabbed my laptop, and took the elevator to the sky bar of the hotel. The top floor was rather pleasant. Blue light glowed over the generous pool area under a glass dome beside the bar. There was one person swimming back and forth in the pool and I could tell he was a well trained swimmer. Taking notice of a gorgeous muscular back and feeling a small pang of envy about the smooth graceful motions of the body in the water I headed past the pool to the dark and graceful looking bar. Even in a lifetime of training I would never be able to look more than respectable in the water.

I sat down at the bar, hooked my laptop up with the closest power socket, and started working on my hypothesis. I looked forward to getting my own lab at MIT in less than a week. Turns out being famous brought some publicity for the college and bringing publicity helped with getting your own private lab. It was a good thing that I had Percy around now because there was some heavy equipment that I needed to move up to the third floor. I could probably even train him to be a good lab slave seeing he was disciplined, should have calm hands, and was used to being told what to do by other people.

"Can I get you something Ms Chase?" I looked up surprised and found the bartender standing there. "Yes, a glass of orange juice, please." He smiled at me and I turned my attention back to my computer. "Good evening, sir. Here are your things." The bartender greeted another person. "Thank you." I heard a familiar voice. Pulled out of my concentration again I looked up and saw Percy sitting on a barstool dripping wet in his swimming trunks with a towel over his shoulder. I could have guessed who the swimmer was I had seen earlier. Feeling slightly awkward I focused at my screen to avoid his gaze. That was not necessary though, Percy had already turned to the bartender without even noticing me.

"Just out of curiosity. What team were you in?" The bartender asked. "Team-1 but I was a Night Stalker." The bartender nodded. "I heard about you guys. You were the people who jumped jurisdictions!" My body guard chuckled. "Yes. We switched between team-1, team-5, STVD-1, and SBT-22." The bartender nodded. "I guess that saved you from long term deployments." Percy shrugged. "Nah. I was officially in Iraq for ten months on my last tour but I ended up going everywhere else, too. What did you do exactly?" The bartender scratched his beard. "US-Army armoured brigade. I commanded a M1A1 tank but I left the service shortly after Desert Storm." I rolled my eyes out of habit and stopped listening in on them and continued working on my project.

Chloe pov.

Three months earlier.

I sat next to Sophie while she sat in the driver's seat turning on the engine. "So what is this place you wanted to take me to?" Sophie asked. I bit my lip. "Well, as you know I am on my schools Volleyball team." She nodded. "Go on." I folded my hands. "Our principal got sick over us pestering him about who should get the budget raise and told us he would love to see us kill each other over it. So when the football team suggested the budget fight should be solved by a paintball tournament he agreed."

I could see the corner of Sophie's lips twitching. "Of course my volleyball team doesn't need too much funding but we don't want the football monkeys to get any of it. So we teamed up with the school's chemistry nerds who need lots of money to buy hardware for their projects so we wouldn't be outnumbered too much. Now, we are allowed to bring a few friends to the matches to even out the numbers." Sophie was grinning broadly. "So you thought you could just hire a mercenary?" I smirked. "Well we lost every match up until now but if we win against the football team who won every battle apart from their defeat against the swim team we are good in the game." I paused for a second. "Also my team needs new balls and uniforms and the Chemistry team needs a combustion chamber – whatever that is…"

Sophie chuckled. "Why didn't you ask your brother?" I crossed me arms. "Are you crazy? Percy would go ballistic if he knew I was doing something involving guns. The only thing Percy taught me about weapons is how to disarm someone holding one." My adopted sister scratched her shin. "True. That's why I took you to a shooting range. Kids like you are fascinated by fire arms. It's only natural and keeping you away from them won't make the fascination go away. It is better if you learn about them in a controlled and safe environment instead of experimenting yourself. I really love your brother like hell but his gun policy is hypocritical." I eyed her. "Why is he so much against me having anything to do with guns anyway?" She shrugged. "Bad experience. One time in the Middle East and two times in Africa we met kids you age and younger that were armed. Bad memories." She shook her head and immediately changed the subject. "I assume this match is taking place in the arena?" I nodded ignoring that she just called me a kid and felt a pang of sympathy for my brother. Sophie started the car and pulled out of the lot, into the New York traffic. "We are meeting at that McDonalds right across from it." Sophie nodded.

Twenty minutes later Sophie stopped the car in a parking lot and we continued the last ten feet to the fast-food restaurant on foot. Once inside I pulled off my jacket because of the warmth. "We are fifteen minutes to early." I realised after checking my smart phone. "Well, let's get something to eat and then secure a table." Sophie said. I looked puzzled at the nearly empty restaurant and suddenly understood Sophie's reasoning. The restaurant would be packed if you added eighteen more teenagers. When we sat down with our meals, I spotted a friend from the chemistry club stepping into the restaurant. I waved him over. "Hey, Chloe. You said you knew how we could not get our asses kicked this time." I nodded and scooted over to make space on the bench for him. Once he had taken a seat I started. "As you know my brother is back home." He nodded. "Yes, everyone heard about that." I nodded toward Sophie. "Well, I hired his best friend and team mate to fight on our side. I assume that a Seal would be enough to even the odds. He looked at Sophie sceptically for a few seconds before a grin appeared on his face. "This could actually work." Sophie rolled her eyes. "Of course it will." she grumbled. Over the next few minutes my school mates arrived and crowded around us. To my surprise I realized that Sophie was uncomfortable with being the centre or attention. To someone who didn't know her it would be invisible but I saw the way her shoulders were just slightly tense.

Frowning I took a sip from my coke. Despite their best efforts to hide it I had noticed a change in Sophie's and Percy's personalities over the last few years. This was only another example. They had become quieter, more serious and also seemed a bit more tired and older.

Half an hour later we left the restaurant and headed over the other side of the street to the large stadium like building. This was going to be fun.

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><p><strong>You are frigging awesome. I love you all. I hope you all have fun. I deserve these Reviews.<strong>

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	8. I feel so dirty

**Hello, I´m sorry about this but this is important so please read.**

**I have often annouced that I need to turn my life around because I am failing in school. Well as you can imagine that takes lots of time. Time that I don´t have for writing anymore. I know that many of you are waiting for the next chapter. I can tell you that I have already written the next two chapters and the next chapter is by far the best chapter I have ever written. I had a god mode thingy there. No Idea why.**

**Anyway I am going to set myself a strikt timetable so that I get a propper education instead of ending as a poor author under a bridge. I love you all. I´m sorry. So sorry. Let my say again that I will see this story through, I am committed but going over the chapters to make them this good by my standards, takes a lot longer than simply writing them. As I said the next two chapters are already written and I am half finnished with perfecting the next one. As I said this takes a lot of time.**

**I hope you understand, I am as frustrated as you are. If you want to contact me you can reach me over facebook. My name is Winter Wolf. As you can imagine I have a white wolf as my profile pic. So, write me a message when ever you feel the need to.**

**I am and will always be a servant of your imagination.**

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


	9. Dreams of a child

**Hi book nerds. **

**This was the most time consuming chapter I have ever written. It will take a while before I can update again even though I already wrote the next chapter. I´m sorry but I need to spend my out of school time...well with school. XD. I really love you all and hope you enjoy this. Ohh and I deserve a Review from each and every one of you readers because this is the best chapter I have ever written. **

**To Gues: Next chapter. Piper and Jason will have their moment next chapter.**

**To Nycratus: Thank you for understanding.**

**To LoveFinn: I try to. **

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><p>Chloe pov.<p>

Our team and the football team assembled around the supervisor. We had changed into protective clothing and were holding paintball guns in our hands. "Okay kids. You know the rules. I will permit some melee combat as long as you don't overdo it. Now, as you all know you will be disqualified if you shoot someone in the face intentionally." At this Sophie, who was standing next to me cursed quietly. "You have five minutes before the battle begins. Good luck and may the best team win." A loud, confident cheer echoed from the football team while our team stayed silent.

It seemed that even though we had Sophie on our side my teammates were still sceptical. As we later walked next to each other I noticed the way Sophie was holding her weapon. For her this was most likely rather lame. I relaxed somewhat and remembered her earlier reaction. "What was wrong earlier at the supervisor's briefing?" I asked her quietly. She looked at me disbelieving. "I'm not allowed to take headshots! Don't they realize that the head usually is the only thing that pokes out of cover? Now I have to rely on that their stupidity. Hopefully they won't think of giving each other cover fire while advancing so I can score center mass hits." "Don't worry. You will have all the time of the world to score center mass hits while they massacre us. They usually simply overrun other teams in their first charge." At this Sophie's mood brightened up. "Okay. Tell your friends to keep the front wide and let them attack. Under no circumstances are they to abandon their position. If they flee I will personally put them down." I laughed nervously. "Aren't you taking this to serious?" I asked her. "Don't you want to win? They are ten more then we are. Make your teammates stand their ground or else I will do with them what I would do in real combat with cowards that abandon their post and it involves friendly fire." I immediately tried to picture myself telling that to my high school friends with little success and sighed as we reached my team mates.

The team looked at me expectantly and suddenly I had a great idea how to get around the responsibility of holding the pep talk. "Now, I brought in a professional to help us. For those that haven't met her yet she will introduce herself in person. She will also be in charge today. Sophie, please take over from here." She gave me an incredulous look but stepped forward nonetheless. "Okay kids. I am Lieutenant Sophie McKing and as you have probably heard I work as a sniper for the US Navy Seals. Now let's get to the matter at hand. I will only be saying this once so listen up. You will take cover behind the obstacles at the dedicated front line. You will keep the front as wide as possible. Let them charge into our kill zone if they are stupid enough to try a frontal attack. If they dig in themselves you will still stay where you are. Than we try and fight this out paintball by paintball. If I see one of you deserting I will take you down myself. If I see one of you starting a heroic attack I will also take you down. In other words I will shoot anyone who abandons their post." Sophie announced. There was some quick nodding and grumbling. Sophie sized us up with contempt. "Now, I'm not used to giving briefings so get the hell out of my face. Dismissed." With that she walked out onto the mulch covered field leaving us standing there, utterly stunned.

Everyone gave me a nervous look. "What are you waiting for?" I hissed at them, hurried after her, and took position next to her. She had already pulled down her protective goggles and I followed her example. "Tell me we are going to win." I said while staring at the group of huge and muscular football players. She gave me a grim smile. "Or die trying." I looked at her in alarm but then realized the joke and sniggered.

Percy pov.  
>It was about three o'clock in the morning. Annabeth was still working on her laptop and had apparently lost track of time. I walked over to her. "Annabeth?" I asked gently. She looked up at me slightly disoriented but quickly gathered herself after a few seconds. "Yes, Percy?" She asked with her voice slightly slurred. "You should go to bed." She shook her head. I couldn't help but noticing that she was adorable when tired. "I can't. I need to finish this." She said, straightening up. Her voice was full of determination despite the fact that she looked exhausted to death. I smiled at her. "What you need to do is get some sleep." I said firmly. She gave me an irritated look. "No, now please let me work. Don't forget who you work for." I crossed my arms. "I was hired by Ms. McLean." I pointed out. She seemed confused, looking even more adorable. This probably didn't happen to her too often. "What ever. Just let me work." I sighed. "Miss Chase. Go to bed please." I asked her, still trying the diplomatic approach. She tried to stare at me. "I can't. This is important." I didn't cave in. I had forced people before to go to sleep even though their skills where absolutely vital and in desperate need at that time. Annabeth´s project could wait until tomorrow. She bit her lip. "What if I forget everything?" I nodded at her laptop. "I trust you made notes. Anyway, tired people are known to make mistakes and you don't want to have to redo everything." She sighed. "Okay. You've won." She closed her laptop. "By the way. What is your excuse to be up this late?" I smirked. "Haven't you noticed? I went swimming." She gave me an irritated look. "What a strange occupation in the middle of the night!" I didn't know what to answer and resolved staring at her computer with mild accusation. She sight in defeat, got up, and we headed over to the elevator. "When are we meeting tomorrow?" I asked and looked down at her. She was apparently not listening but instead eyeing my torso. "Like what you see?" She blinked and looked away. She was obviously too tired to put up a fight and simply mumbled "Not much to look at, bro!" We left the elevator and headed down to Annabeth's room. "Good night Annabeth." She nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Wake me up...some time tomorrow." Annabeth entered her room and closed the door behind her without looking back one second. I felt relieved but also could not help myself to smile at our exchange. Quickly I followed her example and went to bed.<p>

Annabeth pov.  
>I undressed and crawled under the covers. Still entertaining the idea to simply continue working in secret I dipped under. Suddenly I was back at the familiar place seventeen years ago. I was standing in the golden, late afternoon sun on a deserted strip of beach. After running away from home a few weeks ago I certainly looked the part. My hands were a filthy as were my clothes and my hair probably resembled a rat's nest. I had spent the last few weeks hiding from people and stealing food here and there when I was hungry and sleeping where I could find a place to hide.<p>

I didn't want to run away anymore, I was too exhausted to continue on and this place was peaceful and inviting. I knew that if I stayed here I would eventually die from dehydration. Despite the common assumption about the cognitive abilities of children I was quite capable to understand the concept of death. I was just too tried and scared to care. A great sense of peace and composure filled me as I let myself drop down onto the warm sand. I took off my Cinderella back pack and dropped it next to me. The sent of the sea and the sound of the waves filled me with a sense of peace which I had always missed. I looked around feeling the need to build something permanent in this place, something that lasted very long, like five years or so. Apparently there was nothing around to support my constructive mood except sand.

I smiled when it hit me, marvelling at how poetic my train of thought was. I would build a sand castle. It would lose its beauty and majesty by tomorrow morning. By the end of the week there would be no hint that I had ever existed. It made perfect sense to me. My legacy would fade away with me.

As long as I could remember I made a point in thinking big words like 'poetic', 'dehydration' or 'legacy', just because my step mother had sometimes screamed at me for using them. She said children my age shouldn't talk like that. I had often used dictionaries to find even bigger and more complicated words just to annoy her. That is how I learned reading fast, even though I always got a bad headache when I did it. My dad had once explained that I had something called Dyslexia. Letters were my enemies and kept tumbling around in my head like a tossed salad.

I closed my eyes, and started designing a castle in my head, the medieval symbol of prestige and strength. This was my most ambitious project yet, including my attempt to build a house out of my father's books and my efforts to demonstrate deflagration. I had used my step mothers perfume collection, a sack of flower, and a handful of other every day things. I had undertaken the experiment simply to get back at my step mother. She had told me to play with barbies and dress up as a princess like other girls my age did. Not that I didn't like dressing up as a princess, I just didn't like being told so.

Sadly both my experiments had failed. My book house had collapsed when I tried to add a second floor and my attempt at pyrotechnics had produced a detonation instead of a deflagration. This had effectively destroyed the tool shed. The screaming that followed had been louder then ever before. When my step mother remarked to my dad later at dinner that she wanted to give me into foster care, I ran to my room and packed my Cinderella bag pack with my most valuable possessions and things I thought I would need: My teddy bear, a book about Greek architecture, a kitchen knife, a bottle of water, and my favourite gray owl pyjamas. I climbed out of my window and ran as fast and far as I could.

Turning back to my new project I decided to build a fortress with multiple angled walls and a tough citadel. It would represent what I wanted most. It didn't need to be pretty, it only needed to hold out and keep safe, like a family ought to. I slowly walked closer to the water where the sand would hold more moisture. It was high tide so I wasn't running any danger of the sea claiming my little project ahead of time. I fell to my knees, dug my fingers into the sand, and started building what was going to be my last stronghold. My mind was once again left to wonder.

I had always wanted to become an architect or a scientist. Of course that was impossible now. My dreams were the only thing that remained. I even had to leave my treasured book about architecture behind when I had to get away from a clerk when I tried to steal leftovers from Mc Donald's. I realized that tears were running down my cheeks. I cursed silently. Crying was certainly the least productive way of loosing water.

Wisps of shrieking laughter reached my ears over the wind and surf. Annoyed and slightly worried I wiped away my tears. I didn't know if I had enough strength left to run away again in case I wasn't allowed to be here. Since there was nothing I could do about it at the moment I pushed all thoughts aside and continued working. "Hi, what are you doing on my beach?" I jumped to my feet and spun around. Feeling a bit dizzy I studied the pretty, Native American girl. She had to be around my age. Her kaleidoscope eyes lacked any worry and looked playful. Kaleidoscope was another big and complicated word that I had once gotten in trouble for. She appeared to be the kind of girl that always wore the prettiest dresses at birthday parties.

"Your beach?" I asked suspiciously. Maybe she was just trying to scare me off so she could steel my sand castle. She nodded. "My dad bought it." My mind raced. The prospect of someone buying a beach was confusing to put it mildly. How do you define a beach? How far does it go, from the water line to the dunes? "You're lying." I accused her. She shook her head. "Naha. I'm not. Grandpa says lying attracts bad spirits." I bit my lip, remembering something I had read in one of my father's books. I didn't fully understand what it meant but it seemed to fit. "There is no logical reason to assume the presence of the supernatural because it can't be witnessed in the physical universe. If it is observed in the natural world, it exists. Therefore it is not supernatural." I informed her feeling slightly smug. She scratched her head and looked at me utterly perplexed. "What is logical?" She tried after a few awkward seconds. I sighed. "I think it means that it is smart or makes sense." I reasoned. I was frustrated that I could not explain it any better. I had never dared to ask anyone.

"And what is super... super…?" She asked trying to pronounce the word properly. "You mean supernatural?" I asked. She nodded. "I think something is called supernatural when it is silly or unreal, like a ghost." Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms in anger. "Are you saying that Grandpa is lying?" "That or he is stupid." I confirmed bluntly. She glared at me. "Now, I've proven that ghost and spirits don't exist. You have to be lying and this beach isn't yours. I will stay here as long as I please." I deducted feeling rather pleased with myself.

By the way, 'deduct' was also one of the big words I wasn't allowed to use back where I used to live. I wasn't sure what the word meant exactly but I was quite confident that it made sense. "No, I'm not lying." She insisted. "My dad told me that we bought this beach so we wouldn't get bothered by other people." I balled my fists. "And I chose this beach because it was empty. I want to die in peace." She nodded oblivious to my growing irritation and the magnitude of my plans. "What are you building there?" She asked peering around me. "My sand castle." I said defensively and tried to hide it behind me even though it was much too large.

"Can I see it?" I shook my head. "No, you can't." I snapped wishing it were true. She glared at me. "Yes I can. This is my beach so this is also my sand castle." She had now crossed the line. I studied her thinking of the best way to defend my castle. She looked well and healthy while I was dehydrated, exhausted, and so thin that you could easily count my ribs. I could see that she lived a good life. However, she also was a big spoiled brat while I had grown tough and fearless. I was willing to protect my last stronghold with my life.

"Go away." I growled giving her one last chance. She shook her head. "Make me!" I stepped forward, drew back my arm and punched her in the face as hard as I could. She stumbled back looking at me shocked, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm going to tell my dad you did that." She yelled angrily. That was the last straw for me. The fact that this girl had a dad who would protect her like every girl should have made me angry beyond reason. With a savage battle cry on my lips I launched myself at her and knocked her down on the sand. Pinning her down under me I started scratching and punching every inch of skin that I could reach while she tried to pull me of her.

I heard a man yelling in the distance but was too busy attacking the girl. The yells came closer and closer until a large hand closed around my arm. I instinctively grabbed a fistful of sand and threw it in his face just as he pulled me off the girl. The hand around my arm disappeared and I heard loud cursing. I jumped up and started running as fast as I could. After a few steps the man caught up with me and spun me around. He was a huge, Native American man. "Hey. Stop running!" He ordered me calmly. The girl was hiding behind him but peeked out behind his leg curiously. She must have been tougher then she looked because she wasn't crying even though her lip was bleeding.

I kicked and punched trying to get loose and even tried to bite the hand holding my shoulder until he roughly sat me down in the sand. "Stop fighting. I won't hurt you." He promised with a gentle voice. I stopped struggling and glared at him. He glanced at the girl. "Are you alright honey?" The girl blinked at him. He smiled at her fondly and turned back to me. "If you promise not to run away I will let you go." He offered calmly while rubbing the sand out of his eyes. I glared at him suspiciously and studied his face. He had gentle eyes and his face showed no deception. "What is your name?" He asked kindly. I bit my lip. "Annabeth." I finally replied. "So Annabeth. Where are your parents?" I managed to keep away my tears and kept a straight face. "Probably at home." I offered carefully. "Do you know their phone number?" I gritted my teeth. "Of course." He smiled. "Should we call them?" I crossed my arms. "No, I ran away weeks ago." He looked slightly worried. "Weeks? You've been alone all this time?" I shook my head. "I have Odysseus with me." He raised one eyebrow. "Who is Odysseus?" "My teddybear!" I exclaimed, feeling that this was obvious.

"You have to promise not to call my parents or I will run away again." I threatened. He laughed. "You are a tough girl to bargain with, Annabeth." I took a step backwards ready to start running again. "Don't worry. I promise I won't call anyone. So, what are you doing on this beach?" He asked. "Building a sand castle and waiting to die." Hadn't I said that before? His face darkened. "Dying? Do you even know what that means?" I nodded. "The body stops working and the brain shuts down… I think." He nodded. "You are a very smart girl, aren't you?" I rolled my eyes. "Obviously."

The other girl stepped forward from behind her father. "Why did you run away?" She asked. "My family doesn't want me which makes them strangers and I can't stay with strangers. "The girl looked horrified. "That's so sad." I bit my lip and fought back my tears again. "I am Piper." She introduced herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to take away your castle." I nodded. "I'm sorry that I hit you." I offered, not feeling sorry at all. She had started it after all!

Her face lit up. "Maybe we can be your family. I've always wanted a sister." Then she turned to her father. A spark of hope came to life in my chest but I was too proud to beg or ask for help. "She can be my sister, right dad? She can stay with us." I tried to hide my hope as I stared up at the man. He scratched the back of his head. "It's more complicated than you think. There are laws for these kinds of things and we could get into trouble." My heart sank. He was right of course. "Don't worry. I will just get my backpack and leave your beach." I said glumly and turned to leave, already mourning my little fortress. I had no idea what to do next.

"Hey, wait a second!" The man said quickly. "I can't just let you walk away like that. I can't promise you anything but you can stay with us at least for dinner. You look like you could use a decent meal, a shower, and a good night's sleep. We can figure out what to do tomorrow." My tears began to well up again. "Just one condition." He said sternly. "Don't run away again!" Even though I couldn't understand why he would bother, I slowly nodded. "And in return you won't call my parents!" He took me by the hand. "Let's talk about this tomorrow. I can promise you not to do anything behind your back." With that he pulled me around. "By the way I am Tristan and that is a wonderful sandcastle." I looked at it. "I don't need it anymore."

I relaxed in the warm, foamy water. The bathtub, like everything in this house was huge. It turned out that the beach wasn't that lonely after all. Right behind the dunes hid a large villa. On our way we had passed a big pool and a large garden.

"So, you really spent all this time on your own?" Piper was sitting in the bathtub opposite of me. I nodded. "I ran away once but went back home in the afternoon because I got hungry and I was too scared to walk out of sight of the house." She mused and added after a few seconds. "But I think my reasons were a lot less good then yours." "Why did you run away?" I asked curiously. "I really can't remember." She began producing foam by playing with her toes on the surface of the water. "It's so cool to finally have a sister!" Piper giggled suddenly. "Yes, it's nice to have someone." Suddenly I realized how hungry I was.

Suddenly I jerked awake at the sound of passing voices from the hallway. After a few seconds I realized that I was at the hotel. I listened to the fading noises from people trying to find their rooms after partying too long and slowly drifted away again.

I was sitting on my bed. Piper came bursting into my room. "Annabeth, Christine invited us to her birthday." I gave her a smile. Suddenly her face changed as if she had suddenly realized something horrible. She covered her mouth with her hands. "What's wrong Piper?" I asked concerned. She removed her hands slowly and looked at me with a seriousness I didn't know from her. "When is your birthday?" I had feared that question for some time. Trying to get out of the topic somehow I countered. "Why do you ask?" She looked at me blankly. "Because I have just realized that you have lived here for almost a year and we have never talked about your birthday!" I shrugged. "12th of July." She turned pail. "That was last week Annabeth! Why didn't you tell anyone?" I sighed. "I've never celebrated my birthday. I didn't think it was a big deal." Piper dropped down next to me. "You saw that it's a bit deal here. You should have said something." I looked down feeling guilty at the hurt in Piper's face. "I didn't want to be a burden." I admitted. Piper grabbed my hand. "Annabeth, you are not a burden. You are the nicest, wisest and most organized person I've ever met. Okay, sometimes people get uncomfortable when you talk to them. But it isn't your fault that you are so smart and they are not." She winked at me. "Now come on."

Piper dragged me after her down the majestic flight of stairs to her dad's office. She knocked on the door but didn't bother to wait for an answer. She banged the door open and pushed me ahead into the office. I was still stumbling when she was already standing in front of a massive wooden desk not bothering to wait for her dad to acknowledge her. "Dad, can you believe that Annabeth's birthday was last week?" His initial surprise at his daughter's intrusion changed into utter horror. He looked at me with wide eyes. "Annabeth, I'm so sorry!" He came around the desk and sank to his knees in front of me. "I can't believe this never came up. This is unacceptable. Now, when is your birthday?" "12th of July." I whispered. He looked at me sadly. "Annabeth, you are a part of our family. Please stop trying to hide. Now, I will personally arrange your birthday party and it should be a good one since it comes with some delay." Suddenly I realized that I was smiling for the first time in years. He was right, this was family and I hadn't even realized it until this very moment.

The scenery of my dream changed to my teens. It was our first year of high-school. While Piper was a good representation of the popular underachieving student, high-school was quite a different experience for me. I was skipping grades on a monthly base without even trying and had just gotten an offer to study at MIT. I could even start there next month if I wanted to. "Annabeth, stop worrying! This is so awesome!" Piper said laughing. "I can't wait to see dad's face when he hears that you are getting a scholarship from one of the countries top universities! They didn't even except him! Did you actually read this? They are nearly begging you to join! I can't wait to see the faces of the bud heads in school who where calling you a nerd for all this time!" I bit my lip. "But who is going to tutor you if I am in Massachusetts?" Piper burst out laughing. After a while she gasped and tried to get her composure back. She straightened up and gave me the warm smile I knew so well. "I have a proposal for you. If you accept the scholarship from MIT I will make sure that my report cards get better." I couldn't help but return her smile "Okay, Deal! I will go for it! But our father will have to say 'yes' first." Piper shook her head laughing again. "Of course he will, Annabeth! You are the most responsible person in the world! There is a reason why he let you organize our last vacation. Not that you let us have much choice in the matter. And guess what, the paparazzi never even got close to finding us."

"There is something else I wanted to ask of you." Piper gave me a calculating look. "Go on!" I allowed carefully. "A few friends of mine and I want to go to the movies later. I would like you to come instead of staying home and hiding behind some research project." I pulled up my shoulders and crossed my arms. "They don't like me, Piper. They made that clear enough on our first day of school." Piper disregarded my argument with a graceful flick of her hand. "I won't be seeing much of you in the future. If they don't like you being there, the can go to hell as far as I am concerned!" She put her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I closed my eyes. Even though I wasn't too comfortable with physical contact I did enjoy her warm embrace. I could still smell the familiar scent of her hair when I woke up.

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><p><strong>Okay people. This is it for all and I am really starting to love this story. I hope you have fun.<strong>

**Don´t forget to Review this time. I definetly deserved it. I put over seven hours of work into this chapter so you can sacrefice a few seconds in return.**

**Winter Wolf over and out.**


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